Thursday, 3 May 2012

I think it was wishful thinking that Bolton, Chelsea and Newcastle would help us out in the race for third. In the end none of the results really helped us as Spurs and Newcastle are right up there with us now, having all played the same amount of games.

However, like before last night's set of fixtures, every thing is still in our own hands. Win our last two games and we are guaranteed Champions League football for next season. Now it's really important we put our foot back on the gas and steamroller Norwich and West Brom in our final two games of the season. Nothing less than six points will do.

If we can't win our next two matches, perhaps we don't deserve to be in the Champions League. I know the fans will be up for Saturday's game, despite it being a 12.45 kick off. Let's hope the players are.

One player who would have been prepared to fight to the death has officially hung up his boots. Arsenal invincible Sol Campbell announcing yesterday his retirement from football having been without a club for the whole of last season.

A great player for us in two spells at the club and a guy with great mental strength having made the move across London to win trophies with us. I'm sure every Spurs fan knows that Campbell has won more league titles than their club have ever done...

And talking of those lot down the road, as I alluded to yesterday, they are in the driving seat to sign Jan Vertonghen from Ajax. They've offered him the best financial deal so far and the best opportunities to play first team football. The Sun reveal that he's a Spurs fan... Whether that's in the same vein as Robbie Keane I don't know.

We're still interested in signing him, but a lot will be down to where all the teams interested in him finish in the league and who has Champions League football. While Spurs might be the only ones to go public with their interest, we are still among the pack chasing his signature.

A player we'd rather like to sign up on a contract extension is Theo Walcott. Earlier in the season his people walked away from talks with Arsenal - much in the way Samir Nasri's agents did last year - saying we'd talk at the end of the season. Yesterday BBC Sport's David Ornstein revealed that a new meeting for talks in the summer had yet to be organised.

To be honest it's a concern that a meeting has yet to be booked in with the player's agent but it's not something I'm too worried about. There is still time for us to do a deal at the end of the season and I'm imagining that we'll talk once the season is over.

Elsewhere, Andrey Arshavin has said he'll decide where he wants to play his football next season after the European Championships.

And Lukas Podolski has revealed he's yet to meet Arsene Wenger and has only spoken to his new manager over the phone. Our new signing must have been very impressed by the Frenchman's German language skills!

That's your lot for today. More - including early team news for Saturday - in tomorrow's post.